Mahmood Daoud is a Syrian painter. I first met him and saw his work in 392RMEIL393 at the opening of “In the Emptiness”. Mahmood became good company to have around. I wish I could recount more of our conversations together. Who knows, maybe I’ll get to add more.

The tiles out in the garden, next to where I weave.

The excess wool and thread that’s been collected over time.

The loom in the space.

The space looks pretty much like it does in the photos. There are a few added things to give a homely feel, thanks to the mentor in this project Yousef (I really can’t wait to write about him). I will have to take photos of the newly arranged space soon.

I’m scrounging for several things at the same time – cash, reminders, notices, memories, wits – and attempting a less feeble archive of my activities during the last month. Priorities go awry when disaster strikes close to home. The elephant in the room here would be the explosion in Beirut’s Bir Hassan neighborhood this morning. It’s the second one to strike my family’s area of residence. Save for shattered windows, no one’s suffered more than trauma and worry.

Putting a period at the end of that sentence (which is not what I want to do) doesn’t solve the problem for me or anyone. I have as many questions on whether there is a resolve to this situation as the next person, and I don’t like to remain oblivious to them. Meanwhile, parliament didn’t pass a bill to protect women from spousal abuse, among other dire and terrible things afflicting women in Lebanon. I don’t like to put a period after that sentence, either. These are all issues that need attention, and I can’t run a blog post on a few basic feelings.

More often than not, I wonder if aspects of this project are based on a few basic feelings. I won’t dramatize personal insecurities now. I can ascertain that they don’t draw from a fear of failure, but rather just a need to hear that the project is on good footing now. It’s become a little more important, now that I’m delving into it with a number of others (more on that soon, as well).

On that note, I hope you enjoyed looking at the photos.

View outside a gate, towards a big patch of garden and stepping stones in Gemmayze.